The manatus, or lamantine is said to carry its young between its paws, and when viewed in this attitude, it may have given rise to the belief in the mermaid.

THE WHALE.

Why is the whale so called?

Because of its derivation from wal-fisch, or wallow fish.

Why are whales classed with mammalia?

Because, although their home be entirely in the depth of the waters, they have several features in common with the larger quadrupeds.

Why is the whale not a fish?

Because its lungs, heart, intestines, &c, resemble those of quadrupeds; they breathe by lungs, not by gills; suckle their young; have no scales, and a horizontal tail, the reverse of fishes.

The whale is the largest of all known animals, weighing upwards of one hundred thousand pounds. Those that are taken at the present day are rarely longer than from sixty to seventy feet.

Why are the whale tribe called Cetacea, or Cetaceous animals?

Because Cete in Latin signifies whales.

Why are whales and other cetacea without the lacrymal apparatus?

Because their eyes are preserved in a moist state by the element in which they live.

Why is the brain of the cetaceous tribe considered small in comparison with the size of the body?

Because the brain of a common whale, nineteen feet in length, has been found by Mr Scoresby to weigh about 3 pounds, although the weight of the animal was nearly 11,200lbs. Here the weight of the brain was about one-thousandth part of that of the body, whilst that of the brain of an adult man is about 4lb, and that of the body 140, the brain

the one-thirty-fifth part of the weight of the whole body.-Notes to Blumenbach.

Why do whales rise to the surface of the water to breathe? Because they have a heart with two ventricles (or cavities,) and lungs through which they respire; and are unable to separate the air from the water, as fishes do by means of their gills. Hence it is a vulgar error to call the whale a fish; yet he is entirely an inhabitant of the sea, having a tail, while his front limbs much more resemble fins than legs, and are solely used for pawing the deep.

Why has the whale blowing holes on the head?

Because they may serve for respiration, and for the rejection of water which enters with the food. In consequence of their situation at the top of the head, the water is easily elevated beyond the surface of the sea, while the mouth is usually under water.

Mr Scoresby has ascertained that these blowingholes emit only a moist vapour, and are huge nostrils. When this vehement breathing or blowing is performed under the surface, much water is thrown out into the air. The sound thus occasioned is the only similitude of a voice emitted by the animal; and, in the case of a violent respiration, it resembles the discharge of a cannon.

Why are the breast-fins of a whale called hands?

Because, instead of being composed of straight spines like those of fishes, they conceal bones and muscles formed very like the fore-legs of land-animals; but so enveloped in dense skin, that the fingers have no separate motion, though the hand is flat, very pliant, large and strong, enabling the whale to sustain the young closely compressed to its body, as was remarked by Aristotle. Dr Harwood.

Why do the fins or swimming paws of the whale serve as a helm rather than as oars?

Because, while the whale swims, the fins lie flat on the surface of the water, and are not instrumental in producing its motion, which arises entirely from the tail. (Scoresby.) Such is the spring and vitality of these fins, that, if we may believe De Reste, they continue to move for some time after being separated from the body.

Why is the globe of the eye of the whale nearly spherical, and projecting through the iris?

Because there may be little or no room left for aqueous humour, the whale being so much under water. The aqueous humour being of the same density with the water, would there have no power of refracting rays of light: its place is therefore supplied by an increased sphericity of the lens.— Notes to Blumenbach.

Why has the tail of the whale such tremendous power? Because it consists of two beds of muscles connected with an extensive layer surrounding the body, and enclosed by a thin covering of blubber. It does not rise vertically like that of most fishes, being flat and horizontal, only four or five feet long, but more than twenty feet broad. A single stroke will throw a large boat with all its crew into the air.

Why is the body of the whale surrounded with blubber? Because it may be enabled to defy the most dreadful extremities of cold, and to preserve a strong animal heat, even under the eternal ice of the Pole.

Why is the palate of the whale covered with baleen? (improperly termed whalebone).

Because it may strain the water, which the whale takes into its large mouth, and retain the small animals on which it subsists. For this purpose the baleen is in the form of sub-triangular plates, with the free edge fringed towards the mouth, the fixed edge at

tached to the palate, the broad end fixed to the gum, and the apex (or point) to the inside arch. These plates are placed across each other at regular dis- Fleming's Philosophy of Zoology.

tances.

-

Why are the whales seen in the greatest numbers in the olive waters of the Greenland sea?

Because of the incalculable number of medusæ, or animalculæ in these waters, which occupy about a fourth of the Greenland sea, or above 20,000 square miles. The whales cannot derive any direct subsistence from the animalcule; but these form the food of other minute creatures, which then support others, till at length animals are produced of such size as to afford a morsel for their mighty devourers.

Mr Scoresby estimates that two square miles of these waters contain 23,888,000,000,000,000 animalculæ ; and, as this number is beyond the range of human words and conceptions, he illustrates it by observing that 80,000 persons would have been employed since the creation in counting it.

Why is a certain species of whale called razor-back? Because it has a horny protuberance or fin at the extremity of the back, which part of the body rises into a narrow ridge.

Why is it an error to suppose that the great northern whale feeds on herrings?

Because the structure of its throat and mouth prevent it from swallowing so large a fish; it has no teeth, and its throat is very narrow. Its food is marine worms and insects taken into its mouth with a volume of water, and strained through the fibres of the whalebone fixed in its palate.

The whale that pursues the herrings on the coast of Scotland, is the bottle-nose, an animal of very different anatomy and habits from the great northern whale.--Notes in various Sciences.

Why do whalers first attack the suckers or young of the whale?

Because they are under the assurance that the mother will start forth in her own defence.

Why is the white whale more valuable than any other species?

Because it yields spermaceti; which is found in the form of a milk-white oil, in the body, near the blubber, and in cavities on the head. On exposure to the air, it hardens into a semi-transparent kind of tallow. The blubber yields sperm oil: and ambergris is formed in the large intestines when the whale is diseased.

One of this species was taken in 1829, near Whitstable; measuring sixty-two feet in length, and sixtytwo feet in height: the oil from which was worth 7201, exclusive of the spermaceti.

THE NARWHALE.

Why has the narwhale been called the sea-unicorn? Because it has been very frequently found with only one tusk. Yet there can be no doubt that it possessed originally two of these, one in either jawbone; and that which is wanting must have been lost by accident, as we can easily suppose. - Shaw. Why was it supposed that the female narwhale had no tusks?

Because the tusks in the female come much later than in the male. Linnæus, and the captains of the Greenland ships fell into this error; but the question has since been decided as above, by Sir E. Home.

THE DOLPHIN.

Why was the dolphin said by the ancients to be attached to man?

Because it is known to accompany ships to consid